2 troops killed, possibly by Afghan soldier

by Laura King - Nov. 7, 2010 12:00 AMLos Angeles Times

KABUL, Afghanistan - Western military officials said Saturday that they were investigating Taliban claims that an Afghan soldier shot and killed at least two U.S. troops, then escaped and defected to the insurgency.

If this proves to be the latest instance of a member of Afghan security forces turning his weapon on Western mentors, the incident comes at an awkward time. The eventual hand-over of security responsibilities to Afghan forces will be a major theme at a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, this month.

The NATO force confirmed that two Western service members were killed Thursday evening in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province. But by Saturday evening, a full 48 hours later, the circumstances of the deaths had not been disclosed.

U.S. Army Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the coalition, said details would not be released until a joint investigation by Afghan officials and the Western military had been completed.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, said an Afghan soldier shot and killed three "U.S. invaders" inside a military installation in Sangin, then fled and joined up with the insurgent forces.

The discrepancy between the two dead reported by NATO and the three claimed by the Taliban could not immediately be reconciled, although the insurgents often make exaggerated claims of Western casualties. It was also unclear whether the attack was premeditated, or if the Afghan soldier had been planted as an infiltrator.

Issues of trust periodically surface in dealings between Western forces and their Afghan counterparts. With training and recruitment accelerating as the U.S. looks to its exit strategy, NATO and Afghan troops live and train alongside each other at bases across the country.

In August, two Spanish paramilitary police officers and an interpreter were shot and killed by an Afghan at a training center in the north of the country. In July, an Afghan soldier killed three British troops in the south, and another killed two U.S. contractors in the north.